“It must belong to someone,” Fiona objected. “We shouldna take it.”
“They’re all running free,” Lia told her. “So we may as well make use of it.”
Fiona nodded. “Very well. Go finish gathering yer things.” As Lia ran inside, Fiona looked over their transportation. The horse seemed old and tired. Why Hamish had grabbed that one and not another? Still, she was grateful for how it would ease their trip. One horse couldn’t carry all of them and their belongings, but they could take turns riding, which meant they could travel farther each day.
Fiona waved to Hamish, then ran back upstairs to get the bundles she’d packed and a few necessities of her own. Plaids and her warmest cloak, and spare boots. Even summer nights could be cold enough that they would be useful. Inside her skirt in a pocket she used for small items at the market, she tucked her cache of coins. She’d earned them by selling her needlework on market days and doing mending for coin. Her expensive needles and tiny scissors she wrapped in a square of linen and added them to her pocket, along with the small pouch of jewelry Arabella had given Fiona before she died.
She would have to abandon everything else. She hated having to leave behind her bundles of good embroidery thread but they could be replaced. Perhaps if the fire wasn’t too bad, things like pots and pottery in the kitchen would survive. But they were too heavy to carry, as was furniture. They, like clothes, were replaceable. Lives were not.
After packing some food from the kitchen, she went outside to join Hamish and Lia, turning to take one last look at the most important thing she’d ever owned. It tore at her to abandon Arabella’s home. Nay, hers. And now it might burn to the ground. She didn’t know whether to feel angry or sad at this sudden change of fortune.
By now, others were running past them in the street, carrying bairns as well as bundles similar to the ones Fiona had prepared. Mongrel dogs ran with them, barking, some nipping at heels in excitement, veering to chase more interesting prey as a riderless horse cantered past.
She nodded to Lia when she joined them. “Ye ride with Hamish. I’ll walk with ye.” Lia’s and Hamish’s bundles were already tied behind the saddle where Hamish now perched.
As he reached down to pull Lia up in front of him, Fiona asked, “How did ye manage to get this horse?”
“I was near the stable when they opened the stalls. I kenned this one, so I borrowed it.”
“Borrowed it?”
“Aye, I ken the man it belongs to, and ’tis one of two he keeps in the stable. The other was gone before the horses were released, so he’s likely gone to check on his croft. I’ll return it when we can come back.”
Satisfied, Fiona nodded. But his final words echoed in her mind…when we can come back.Would they ever be able to?
“Tie those packs with ours,” Lia suggested.
“Later,” Fiona said. “Let’s go.” She wanted to carry them for now. They gave her a small sense of security knowing they were in her hands and not on a horse that could run away.
They joined the fleeing crowd. As they crested the hill at the outskirts, Fiona looked back to see what damage had been done, but trees blocked her view. Heavy smoke still hung in the air over the river valley, confirming her fear that the fire had spread. Was it an accident rather than an attack? Should they wait? Surely those following them would have news.
The people around them seemed to contradict each other with every tale of what they’d seen. All fled from the threat of fire, but no one had actually seen an attack, and only one or two had been near enough to the bridge to see the extent of the blaze. At the time, it had been confined to the bridge, but Fiona doubted that was still the case.
She wanted to know the truth before committing to return to Rose. But other than going back into town to see for herself, she couldn’t think how to get it. Had they left too quickly? Were they really under attack by an army? Or by thieves who’d conceived of a dramatic way to scare everyone away and get access to homes and businesses and take whatever they wanted? The idea made her blood boil. Her house. She reached for Hamish to get his attention when she heard two men coming up behind them.
“I saw it with my own eyes. The bridge has to be gone. The entire length of it was in flames. I thought we were done for, but the wind shifted. It may have pushed the fire toward the opposite side of the river.”
“Are ye certain?” The other man didn’t seem to give much credence to his companion’s claims. “I saw embers blowing toward town.”
“There were some, but I dinna ken. I can say I didna see anyone attacking.”
So the fire could have been an accident. Fiona wanted to ask them more, but others around them joined the discussion with different ideas of what they’d seen or heard. Fiona couldn’t tell which was real and which were stories borne of fear and haste.
She caught Hamish’s attention. “Are ye listening to them? What do ye think? Turn back, or keep going?”
He twisted in the saddle, nearly dislodging Lia in the process. He got her settled, then looked behind them for several long moments. “I dinna like the number of people I see still coming up behind us,” he said when he turned back to her. “If whatever caused this was over, they wouldn’t be following us. We should keep going.”
“Do ye ken any crofters outside town where we could stay for a night or two until we ken more?” Hamish worked for several of the local merchants, making deliveries in and around the area. He would know the countryside best of the three of them.
Hamish shook his head. “I wouldna recommend it. If there’s an army on the way, the farther away we can go, the better I like it.”
He convinced her. To be safe, they must continue to Rose. She would deal with whatever waited for her when they got there. The laird would not be pleased to hear Arabella had died weeks ago, yet Fiona had remained in Inverness, or that she inherited Arabella’s house. If it still stood, would he claim it for Rose, even though it never belonged to the clan? Arabella had it from her merchant husband after he died. Or would the Rose add it to the existing betrothal agreement that obligated Fiona to wed a MacBean? She didn’t like either of those options. If only she could be certain it was safe to return to it, and she never had to face either of those futures.
But she couldn’t, not yet.
Thankfully, they were already on the bank of the river that led to the south side of the Moray Firth. They would have a longtrek ahead of them. Sleeping in the wild for a night or two didn’t appeal. But the cloaks and all the plaids she and Lia had bundled around their few belongings, in addition to the layers of clothes they were wearing, could make pallets that would serve to keep them warm.
She glanced up and noticed with gratitude how carefully Hamish held Lia against him. Long before they lost Arabella, he had developed a particular fondness for Lia and spent much of his free time with her. Fiona suspected their friendship was blooming into a romance under her very nose. In any case, his friendship and his initiative in providing the horse served them well today. She suspected he’d gotten it to take Lia to safety, not necessarily counting on Fiona joining them, but decisions had been made in haste by all of them and so far, they were together and, she hoped, headed for sanctuary.
